How important is the pre-amp?

as far as volume attenuation, easily the best i’ve heard is on the battery powered darTZeel NHB-18NS; there is no potentiometer or resistor network in line with the audio, volume control being by passive attenuation governed by a dedicated processor via analogue optical couplers, offering 192 steps in increments of 0.5dB.

it is truly transparent, yet dynamically alive. alas, it does run $50k.

i've compared it with other active preamps, as well as the MSB Select II passive, and the Placette Remote Volume Control passive. so far it's my preference to any of those.

For just 1 added component, saya CD player, we only need 1 out
So you are saying a simple DIY 44 step attenuator + some resistiors, = beats high priced pres?
Yes??

Well....sorta. Mine is intended to go into volume production in products so it s a bit more complex. It was never intended to be independent from a preamp or integrated amp, and i have never used it stand-alone.  Mine involves 4 inputs, 32 x 2dB steps, a bunch of relays (not cheap if you want good ones to control all this stuff and get you down from 128 to say 44 resistors) a display, a micro-controller, an IR receiver, and a TON of code. The code is a big challenge - especially controlling the IR, synchronizing actions, displaying where you are, etc. but the results, yes, are clearly superior to my monolithic ladder chip solution (also intended for volume production, in fact sooner) and that is superior to an ALPS or Nobel POT (IMO).


You will also have to design and fab some fairly complex mixed analog and digital circuit boards.


A project like this is not for the feint of heart.

There is a dutch guy selling a complete attenuator kit (two units, dual mono i believe).   I think his are intended to go into an amp, but you could build a box and a power supply.  No balance to the best of my knowledge (which, along with mute, is a logical nightmare BTW since both are stateful and you don’t want to swap states wrong). 


For DIY i’d look at the Dutch kit. I suspect his day job is with Philips. Can’t recall his name, Google is your friend. I really wanted remote control that was as good as the best rotary pots. I suspected they could be better (even the monolithic ones) and they are. See my post way way above.

Noble is a good place to start…..

I agree that the death of the preamp is inevitable. But if I had to estimate when the shift would start with significant movement it would be twenty years. That would put it where the CD player is now… a few companies stop production… the ones that are future minded, most users are not yet aware that the age is over. Most people are not aware the world has changed until long after (check out the discussions of CD vs Streamer). But analog needs to die… Don’t see that soon. So that leaves a point maybe 25 years as a good transition point. Even if I was twenty five years old, I would buy a preamp.

It’s about the size of the signal.
The signals from sources are very small and delicate...especially from turntables. Any sins committed here are, sorry for the pun... amplified.

This is why even the quality of the attenuator is so important in a preamp. This is why sound gets colored so easily.

A good preamp is so important. It took me a good while to understand this.